


Better Left Buried

by elarificness



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Blackouts, Father-Daughter Relationship, Found Family, Gen, Not Canon Compliant, Pain, Secrets, Sombra | Olivia Colomar is a Little Shit, Sombra | Olivia Colomar-centric, mentioned past reaper76 - Freeform, reaper and Gabe are separate entities, they speak spanish sometimes, this is what I like to call canon-adjacent, unlikely friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-06
Updated: 2020-03-06
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:48:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23041252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elarificness/pseuds/elarificness
Summary: Sombra usually loved secrets. Thrived off them. Lived off them.This secret, however, was something else entirely.
Relationships: Reaper | Gabriel Reyes & Sombra | Olivia Colomar
Comments: 1
Kudos: 33





	Better Left Buried

**Author's Note:**

> This isn't the most polished thing ever, but I just needed to write it.   
> Thank you to H and F for reading it and giving me feedback!

“Come on, don't you want to have a little fun?” Sombra smiles over to where Widowmaker is busy cleaning her rifle, not paying her any attention at all. 

“ _ Non.” _

“But--”

“ _ Non.” _

Sombra rolls her eyes and gets up. She was never much fun anyway. 

“I'm going to find Reaper,” Sombra calls. All she gets in response is a half-polite hum. She walks out of the room and walks through the familiar Talon hallways to Reaper’s room. 

While he certainly won't have any of her nonsense either, he was honestly more fun to bother anyway. At least he didn't speak French at her. 

“Reap, what’s up,” Sombra says as she knocks on the door. No answer comes. She frowns and knocks again, and when an answer doesn't come, she pushes on the door to open it and finds it locked. 

She scoffs and waves over the electronic lock, opening up her screen. 

“I don't know why you bother locking anything, honestly,” Sombra grumbles as she easily unlocks and opens the door. 

“Come on, lets go do something--” 

Sombra stops when she sees him, sitting on the edge of his bed, staring down at his mask. He looks up at her, and his eyes are wide, sad. 

“Shit,” Sombra huffs out as she closes and locks the door behind her. 

Sombra usually loved secrets. Thrived off them. Lived off them. 

This secret, however, was something else entirely. 

This was a secret she couldn't profit off of in any way. If she kept it, nothing would happen. If she spilled it, it'd only be confirming things that were only whispered about, and, again, nothing would happen. 

“Gabe?” Sombra asks softer this time. 

“How...how long was I gone this time?” Gabe asks. His voice is still gravelly. The voice of a reaper. But his eyes are clear and all the Misty shit that usually comes along with him is at least away from his face. 

Sombra walks over and opens up another screen in front of her. Unlocks and looks at the counter before resetting it. 

“About a week,” Sombra answers. 

Gabe’s grip shifts around and squeezes his mask a bit before he sighs and throws it onto the bed. 

“Did...did I kill--”

“Yeah, Gabe. That's kinda what we do, you know? Kill people. Cause chaos and terror.”

Gabe stares at her, horrified. Sombra huffs. 

“Not like you didn't kill people before all this,” she says as she walks over to his empty desk. No pictures. No paraphernalia. No anything. 

She’s seen the photos, of course. Of his old desk. His overwatch, and then his blackwatch desk. There were plenty of pictures there. Between all the paperwork and the computer, there were frames and frames and frames. 

For an old soldier, he sure held on to people. 

“Did you see any of them?” 

Sombra turns around and looks at him. 

“See what?”

“Overwatch. Did you see any of them there?” Gabe asks. 

Sombra tilts her head a bit. “Maybe. They all got away safe though, if I did.”

“And Jack.”

Sombra frowns. 

Some secrets were better left unsaid. 

“Morrison?  _ Ay _ , not him again. We’ve been over this, Gabe. He died when you did,” Sombra says. 

Gabe’s face falls, and he shakes his head. 

“But I didn't die. And he’s...he’s stronger than me.”

“Gabe--”

“I feel him, you know? I don’t know if it’s this thing or…” He waves his hands around, shifting the dark shadows that surround him for a moment before they cling to him again. 

Sombra raises a brow. “Feel him?”

Gabe sighs and looks up at her. “I just know. I know he’s alive, Sombra. And if he is, there’s nothing that could keep him away from going back to overwatch.”

Sombra clicks her tongue. “And what about you?”

Gabe blinks up at her. “What about me?”

“ _ Ellos no saben,  _ but I do. You want to go back, don't you?”

“What?”

“They left you for dead,  _ viejo. _ ” 

“They wouldn't have done that.”

Sombra raises a brow. “Wouldn't they?”

“Not Angela.”

“Really? Look in the mirror, bro. It sure as hell wasn't the pretty little angel that tried to bring you back.”

In a blink, Gabe is in her face, half there and half not. Mist and shadows and a sad scarred face. 

“I don't need to look in the mirror. I know. I can feel it,” Gabe says. 

“Exactly. Overwatch is...they’re gone, Gabe. The members are still alive, well, most of them--”

“Sombra--”

“But Overwatch is dead. It should  _ stay _ dead.”

Gabe huffs and shifts back to his seat on his bed. Sombra realizes her hand was on her holster and moves it away. Leaning back against the wall, she crosses her arms and looks at him. 

“Look, not all is lost, right? You have new things to do. You have us now,” she says. 

“Us?” Gabe asks. 

“ _ Si.” _

“Sombra, I don’t even know your real name. And when have you ever cared about anyone but yourself? Be honest.”

Sombra scoffs and rolls her eyes. “I’m here right now, aren't I?”

Gabe almost smiles. Almost. 

“God, you almost remind me of Jesse,” he says. 

“Jesse?”

Gabe stops and shakes his head. “Nevermind.”

“Who is Jesse? I thought Jack was your old boyfriend--”

“Jesse is  _ not _ a romantic interest. He’s just…” Gabe trails off and looks at Sombra. Really takes her in for a second. If he had been anyone else in the world, and if Sombra hadn’t known he was gay, she probably would have shot him by now. As it stands, she just stares back, brow raised, waiting. 

“He’s just what?” Sombra asks. 

Gabe huffs again. It seems to come with age, the huffing and puffing. He looks away, back down at the empty desk. 

“He was kind of like you.” 

Sombra blinks. 

Gabe breaks out in a tiny grin as he tilts his head. “Except he was younger back then.”

Sombra rolls her eyes. “Back then. Probably  _ un viejo  _ like you now.”

“No, he'd probably be about your age,  _ vieja. _ ”

Sombra snorts. “Your accent kills me, Gabe.”

“It isn't bad.”

“Terrible, actually. American as hell.”

Gabe chuckles, and Sombra cracks a grin. 

“He was a little punk like you. Didn't care about anyone but himself.”

“Smart man.”

Gabe sighs. “It took a lot, but he joined Blackwatch. Was damn good at it. He could shoot six omnics in the eye in one go if he got high enough.”

Sombra frowns. That sounds oddly familiar. 

“What happened to him?” she asks. 

Gabe sighs and shrugs. “Who knows, honestly. I don't know what happened to any of them after the explosion. I didn’t know what happened to anyone after the explosion except for what I was told. What Reaper was told and then told me. Who knows how much of that is true.”

“Why don't we find out?” Sombra asks, a hexagon opening up in front of her. 

Gabe stares at her for a second, and then he's next to her, appearing out of thin air against the wall. Sombra rolls her eyes. 

“Can't use your own two feet?” 

“This has to be useful for something,” Gabe says. Sombra laughs. “Just give me his last name. I'll find him.”

“Jesse McCree. Former Blackwatch operative.”

Sombra frowns. Definitely too familiar. She goes the easy route and just types the name into a search engine, pulling up the first photo that comes up. 

“That’s...that’s us,” Gabe says. He points at the picture, hand going through the hologram and Sombra tuts at him as he pulls his hand back. 

“ _ No tienes que tocarlo, _ ” she chides. 

“There’s Jesse. Wearing that god awful cowboy hat. No matter what we told him he just wouldn't lose it,” Gabe says, ignoring her. 

Sombra zooms in and stares. Yep, that definitely is that bounty hunter that's been teaming back up with the scraps of Overwatch that's left. He was smaller then. Less burly. 

Same hat, though. 

“And that’s Jack and Ana. Fareeha. Angela...I used to have this photo on my desk,” Gabe says. 

Sombra nods, one of those frames in her mind filling in. 

“Give me a few hours, and I should know everything about him,” Sombra says. She turns it off, and then all that's there is a view of Gabe’s bedroom. 

“A few hours? Thought you were better than that,” Gabe says. 

Sombra scoffs and shoves at his arm. 

“Better than you'll ever be,  _ viejo. _ ”

Reaper never laughs. Sombra thinks that Talon probably thought it was unnecessary. It was easier to control when all it felt was anger. Rage. 

Gabe can laugh, though. It comes out like gravel getting crushed, but he can. He laughs as he walks away, back towards his bed. 

Sombra wonders if he’s glad that he still can. 

“Anyway, like I was saying. Sometimes you remind me of Jesse back when we first met him,” Gabe says. 

“Because I watch out for myself?” Sombra asks. 

“Because you care more than you let on.”

Sombra scoffs. “ _ Estás loco.” _

“Am I? You could have told Talon about me.”

“What would I have said?”

“You know damn well what you could have said. About me. About... _ him. _ ”

“Him?”

Gabe sighs. “Reaper.”

Sombra shrugs. “Maybe I'm just holding onto that information for when it’s really useful.”

Gabe smiles. “Maybe. Or maybe you care.”

“ _ No lo creas.  _ Why would I care about a grumpy old man like you?”

Gabe shrugs. “I don't know. Why do you hang out in here when you could hang out with Amelie?”

“That spider says less words than you do,” Sombra says. 

Gabe rubs his eyes. “Just like when Jesse and Genji didn't get along.”

Sombra rolls her eyes. “Again with Jesse. You'd think you gave birth to him or something.”

“You hang out in here like I gave birth to you.”

Sombra snorts. “It’s not my fault you’re the only one in this place that speaks Spanish.”

“You barely speak it around me anyway.”

“ _ Ay, qué sensitivo tu te pones.” _

“ _ No soy sensitivo.” _

_ “Mirá, tu te escuchas cuando hablas? Suenas como un gringo de--” _

“California?” Gabe says. 

Sombra smiles. “ _ Exactamente.  _ Totally, dude.”

“Nobody in California talks like that anymore.”

“Sure, sure. That's not what the movies tell us, dude.”

“Don't call me dude. I'm still your superior officer.”

“How does that work exactly in a terrorist organization?”

Gabe shakes his head. “I'm also old enough to be your father, kid.”

Sombra grins. “Which is why I call you  _ viejo, viejo.” _

Gabe laughs again, and then he groans, arms coming up around his belly. Sombra frowns and walks closer. 

“Hey, you okay?”

“It’s Reaper,” Gabe says. 

Sombra nods and helps Gabe lay down in bed. 

“It’s alright,  _ viejo.  _ Just try to sleep,” she says. 

Gabe groans again, curling up small as Sombra pulls the covers up over his shivering body. She waits a second, and when he doesn't say anything else, she heads for the door. 

“Sombra,” he calls. 

She stops. 

“Yeah?”

“ _ Gracias _ ,” he says softly. 

“ _ Duérmete, viejo.” _

She hears Gabe chuckle a bit before it’s cut off. She walks out of the room and lets the door close behind her. She hacks the door to lock it back before she heads back down the hallway to her room. 

She flops down on her bed and opens up her screen again to the picture of Overwatch. 

Reaper recognizes them. Knows them because it helps the vengeance fuel him. She's sure Reaper knows all about the cowboy and the soldier that give them problems all the time. Hell, he even jeopardizes missions sometimes to go after them. 

But Gabe?

Sombra sighs and scrolls through the old photos. The press releases. The pictures of Jack Morrison and Gabriel Reyes, heads of Overwatch and Blackwatch, shaking hands and smiling like they actually had saved the world. 

Look at them now. A vigilante and a ghost. 

Sombra frowns. All this shit would just make Gabe even sadder than he already is, and Reaper even angrier. She wasn't very keen on either of those options. 

No, some secrets were definitely better left buried under rubble, and Sombra was keen on keeping them there. 

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!


End file.
